Laura Neal has a job on her hands that would give many people sleepless nights. The 32 year-old is the lead writer on the fourth and final series of BBC America and BBC Three’s smash hit Killing Eve. It’s a role that comes with the responsibility of concluding the cat-and-mouse pursuit between the spy thriller’s leads, former M16 agent Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) and Russian hitwoman Villanelle (Jodie Comer), and formulating an ending that will satisfy the BAFTA-winning, BBC iPlayer-topping show’s four million UK viewers and countless others around the world. So no big deal then.
If Neal is in any way fazed by this, she doesn’t show it when I speak to her over Zoom. “Everyone seems to want something slightly different [from the ending],” the London-based writer muses. “It’s hard as the lead writer, but it’s exciting to be writing on a show that generates so much discussion.” That’s a diplomatic way of putting it.
